Talk:Hedger's Jury Speech/@comment-32292013-20170813183006
Alright, I would like to start off by saying that I don’t think it’s fair to say that because Lee was deemed the bigger threat than I was and I was allied with her meant my game revolved around hiding behind her. Half of the jury is guilty of being in rumored duos, each one I’m sure with one who was perceived to be playing a better game than the other- I don’t think that means the one who wasn’t was hiding which undermines my gameplay from an assumption of what it looked it like versus what it actually was. There is a difference between playing for Final 2 placement and playing to secure your way of getting to Final 2, which I did as any other player should try to do. This brings up another factor that should be considered- while I felt comfortable socially, lets face it- there weren’t a lot of people who would have chosen me over their own allies and I think you could be a testament to that yourself given the cluster of people you likely had closer to you. There were already leaks of my alliances so nothing was stopping people from seeing we were closer. I think in that situation, it would have been unwise to just decide to appease the majority versus sticking with Lee. It is a lot easier to say how good Lee was from winning multiple competitions vs seeing how I was playing from not relying on competitions, but social and strategy- all of which are different aspects of the game. We were just a case of someone easy to deem as a threat and someone else playing a lot more behind the scenes- they’re entirely different gamestyle perspectives that warrant different things and I feel they should be judged appropriately on their own and not in comparison. Second, to go into further detail on them on the aspect of my game, there were multiple occasions in prejury where I attempted to flip votes around, such as when Loris nominated Tobi, but once I saw the votes were not there, I ended up going against this as it was moot as many cases had people I talked to nommed so it wasn’t going to be too big of a burden. William speaks for itself. Right at the start of jury, I had a conversation with Hannah while also talking with Jake. Afterwards, the three of us and Lee decided to create our own alliance of Mystery Inc. Not long after, Luca talked about having a conversation with you and considered changing his renom from Julia to Hannah. During this conversation, it became clear to me that Luca was showing signs of working closer with you than myself and Lee. After we managed to get you out, another decision that was agreed upon and not exclusive to Lee given you were against both and not one of us, I knew I needed to try and weaken a portion of the game. Jake and others had it set to target Dwayne over Luca for Lee’s benefit, but I had my own agenda. That entire week had nothing to do with Lee and if anything, it hindered Lee’s game in my decision to keep Dwayne over Luca, who ended up legitimately trying to side with you and people you were working. I made the decision of taking the first blow before it could be given to me as I had the ability to decide who could have left that week and went with what was better for my game and since I’m sitting here, I’d say it worked. As far as the rest goes, Julia and I were already on better terms considering we flipped against the Nachosteak alliance so I remained safe during her HoH. Saving Lee was partially due to not knowing if I could personally rely on Jake, who Malik and others confessed to me about making deals with. On top of being told he supposedly wanted me nominated, I’m not sure how that doesn’t give sufficient reason for me to want him out over Lee. So I talked with Malik and Loris and ultimately Jake left. Jake leaving also left Dwayne/Nicol wanting Lee in to target, which really just meant it would increase my chances of not being targeted. So yes, there were benefits of keeping Lee for the two of us, but making that move as well was clearly a lot more beneficial for me than keeping Jake. Nicol became the person I had unfortunately connected to the least, thus I intended for her to be next and she was. After that, Lee keeps me with a POV save and I end up keeping Malik due to a personal bond the two of us made and also due to Lee having Dwayne as a target. Final 5 my ideal target of Loris relied on Lee’s initial target of Julia winning POV. I’ve expressed having doubts about Loris, who Lee admitted to making a Final 2 deal with. I knew that if I was to completely ensure I had a decent shot at avoiding getting the short end of the stick, I would need Loris out. Julia won the POV and Loris was renommed, thus once more I got what I wanted and yes, technically Lee got what she wanted as well- this shouldn’t change that Loris was always my target for Final 5 though. I won HoH in F4 and ran through every scenario of who could have left and we all know how that ended. I feel like all of this shows that sure, some of the things and moves I did correlated with Lee, but it was mutual between us and any decision that wasn’t so I acted for it on my own terms and did so clearly. My initial plan for Final 3 was to let Malik and Lee face off in the final HoH, but I didn’t want to completely throw it. At this point I was well aware that all three of us talked to each other of going to the end and how the jury felt about Lee, so some time through Part 1, I felt Malik winning it left him an easy shot at Part 3, and had I won Part 2, then I’d see to it that Malik won final HoH. I suspected the challenge would be memory lane or jury statements and seeing how some people talked in general, it would have not been too hard to not win that challenge. In the end, I got my initial plan of Malik vs Lee which was a huge gamble in itself, but considering I was convinced both would take me to the end, I knew it only meant I for sure was getting 2nd with Lee winning or had an equal shot at winning with Malik I do want you see that thinking I was hiding behind the bigger threat isn’t the case as my strategy and social game showed how prepared I was in the event Lee left at any time. Me putting in the effort, whether it meant saving Lee, someone else, or getting my own target out at a given time, speaks for itself. Yes, there were times we shared the same line of thinking, but I don’t think simply because people saw her as more threatening than me means it was impossible for us to simply feel the same way about something versus me sheeping her which in this game I didn’t do. I’ve also reiterated things about my own moves that were done by own terms. I hope this clears the air for you in regards to my game.